A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAPTER
PRESIDENT
Hello fellow chapter
members! I wanted to take
the time to write to
you and convey how excited I am to have become your chapter
President. If you were at the
Send Off Picnic or
Happy Hour in August you may have heard some of the ideas
and things that I'd
like to accomplish as your chapter President. At our most recent board meeting, I
formally presented my
agenda for 2008/2009 to the board.
In the months ahead we'll be looking to implement
these ideas and work
towards improving our chapter. I
wanted to provide to you all a brief summary of my goals for
the next year.
1)
Growth - In the next year I'd like to see our chapter
grow at least
33%.
Currently we have just under
200 members.
At a minimum, I would
like to see the chapter reach 250 members by July 2009. As we grow in
numbers, we will be able
to do more things as a chapter. A
key area of growth is with our local students at Penn
State. We need to
continue to foster their
development so they want to become active members in our
chapter.
Additionally, there are many
Penn Staters in
the state that are not aware of our chapter or just have fallen
off the
radar. We
want to reach out to
them to try and bring them into our chapter. This will not be an easy task. We will need every chapter member's
help to continue to
grow. So if
you know an alum or an
avid Penn State fan that’s not a member, invite them to an
event or pass along
our chapter information. Let's
continue to grow!
2)
Scholarships - In 2008 the
chapter awarded $8,000 in scholarships to local students
attending Penn
State. This is
a great
accomplishment for our chapter! It
was through the generous efforts of our chapter members that
allowed us to
reach this all-time high, which are extremely grateful for. However, like
anything in life, we want
to continue to exceed our grasps!
My personal goal is to award $10,000 in scholarships
by 2009. Previously, our
chapter's goal was to
award $10,000 by 2010. Both are admirable goals, but I know
the spirit and
efforts of our chapter will allow us to exceed both of
them.
As the tough economic times
continue, it will
be increasingly difficult to continue to grow this scholarship
through pledges
from our current chapter members alone. That is why it is
imperative that we continue
to grow in numbers and strive to make our 2009 events
extremely
successful.
With two football
games coming to Michigan and other scheduled fundraising
events, we will
continue to strive to reach our
goals!
3) Increase Social Activities/
Aware-ness. Over the next year,
I want to continue
to increase the number of social activities we do as a
chapter. In the months ahead, we will be rolling
out a calendar with multiple events that will be sure to entice
many of
you. Some of
the upcoming events
will include our football game watches, community service
projects, group
events with other Big Ten chapters and supporting our local
athletic teams as
they come to Michigan. Also being discussed has been the idea
of doing a group
outing to a musical/play and Professional Networking
Night. If you have any
ideas, contact me or
your board members and let us know!
We're eager to hear your
ideas.
4)
Increase Student Involvement - I feel one of the most
important roles
our chapter can serve is to help grow and develop our
students. They are the future
for Penn State and
for our society as a whole. We
need to continue to encourage and support them as best as we
can. I've discussed the
idea of starting a
mentorship program for our students.
I know many of our students are studying many of the
same disciplines we
did in our undergraduate programs.
What better way to support our students then by being
a mentor. So if you are
interested in being a
mentor to one our students, please let us know! Additionally, I want to try and do 1
chapter event each
semester at University Park. I
know many of us travel back throughout the year to visit the
campus or we are
stopping by on the way to visit friends or family. I think it would be important for our
students to see us on
campus as well as when they come home.
We'll likely look to do something next spring so keep
an eye out for
that.
These are my main goals I'd
like to focus
on. It will be
a tough task, but I
know we can work together to accomplish these things. Your support of the chapter has been
outstanding over the
years and I'm counting on it to continue to lead us into the
future. The board and I
are always eager to
hear your ideas and thoughts, so please contact us. Thanks again for your support &
efforts.
For the Glory,
Jason Rupp
